Enquirer news services

NEW YORK - Another meeting between baseball's top officials and Pete Rose, plus reports that Rose is ready to admit that he bet on baseball, are prompting speculation that baseball could be nearer to reinstating him.

But baseball officials aren't saying if they will lift the lifetime ban imposed on Rose in 1989 after an investigation of his gambling.

"We've got a pending application. We're continuing to review that petition," Bob DuPuy, baseball's president and chief operating officer, said Wednesday. "The commissioner has discussed it with Pete. Other than that, I don't have anything to say."

Baseball officials have no meetings scheduled with Rose this week or next, said spokesman Rich Levin.

DuPuy traveled to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to speak with Rose and his business agent, Warren Greene, on Dec. 16. Commissioner Bud Selig had met secretly with Rose in Milwaukee on Nov. 25.

"When there's a time and place for Pete to make a comment, he will," Greene said. "Pete's always been very cooperative and will continue to be."

What they're saying

Excerpts from national columnists concerning the latest news:

"Selig wants to make sure that telling the truth still isn't some kind of part-time job with Pete Rose, even if he's finally ready to admit that he bet on baseball.

"This isn't a negotiation. It isn't a prosecution. It is a new investigation of old Pete Rose, who got all those hits and then hit baseball itself. An investigation that will go on for a while. And in the end, it won't matter how much Rose says, just what Bud Selig says."

Mike Lupica, New York Daily News

"Rose had become a cliche, the bad boy who insisted that Fido ate his homework. It's a sad, stale act, not unlike the posing Rose did every year at Cooperstown while selling piles of autographed memorabilia. Mr. Red had morphed into the Big Green Machine.

"Squeezing a true confession out of Rose should have been as easy as snagging a routine pop-up. America loves to embrace saints with the same passion as sinners, as long as they show a little human touch. And in Pete's case, advance the runner from first to third with less than two outs."

George Diaz, The Orlando Sentinel